Night passes as another day dawns on the dungeon scape. I don’t see it myself but I have quite the affinity when sensing the passing of time. Is it an innate ability, did it belong to my predecessor? That would be quite troublesome being able to distinguish time being locked in the void for so long.
Anyway, It’s the 6th day since I was born, or should I say reborn? It’s a strange time to have an existential crisis but these thoughts started playing through my head. I guess it was better to sort it out sooner or later.
I thought about it once more, I don’t have any strange thoughts of hate after knowing about my situation or any of those weird desires to overthrow the legacy of the existence before me. I don’t have any qualms against my situation of being placed as a dungeon master either.
It felt like I was cut from the same cloth and that I got the chance to live out both of our lives and desires. I was really grateful actually, it didn’t really matter which situation I was in. I just wanted to sort out these strange feelings before they grew up on me and became something that spiralled out of control.
I could sense the awakening of the others now as well as they went about their daily lives. You might think that it's strange to not have anyone on guard when it’s night time, but monsters have different sleeping and waking hours too. They’re efficient at different times leading to better results.
The bat that was summoned last night began to perch itself into a resting position. Well bats are nocturnal anyway so this wasn’t a surprise. It put a hamper on my desire to have bats line the passageways and do hit run attacks on adventurers in the future. I thought it might be fine if I had more of them but it seems like a pipe dream for now.
I had awoken a while ago and didn’t mingle with the others like I usually did. I stopped working on others for a while and wanted to focus on other things for a bit. I felt slightly more invigorated than usual so I felt like there was something special that could be achieved today. I just couldn’t put my hand on it. Well not yet anyway.
I walked towards room 4, the turtle and the goblin were playing together as usual, I nodded to them and I thought how odd it must be for a dungeon master to acknowledge others, I might be the only one. Dungeon masters… they must all be fearsome and unique entities right, beings that can strike fear into the adventurers hearts. I wondered if I could become one of them. I thought again and I laughed. I’m far from such a fearsome entity for now.
It’s roughly about midday now already with all the time I spent dawdling around. I watched as the turtle grew stronger bit by bit and as the goblin’s affinity stat rose and rose. I still didn’t know what it would amount to but I hoped it would show its effects soon.
I also had some gains. I was expending mana to shoot stone bullets over and over again at the granite mine, in the process I had obtained quite a bit of chipped off granite ore and put it in my inventory.
There were of course other benefits that came from spamming stone bullets.
[Your proficiency in mana manipulation has increased. Mana has increased by 1]
[Your repeated use of <<Stone Bullet>> has increased your magic potential. Your INT has risen by 1]
I felt pretty good. It's been awhile since I felt myself improve. I wasted a lot of mana though, the truth is I wasted almost 100 mana worth. Considering most qualified mages don’t have that much then you should get the point.
“Thank god, I’ve developed <<Mana Recovery 1>> skill”
Mana Recovery, what an awesome skill. Of course mana is the source of most magic arts in this world, with it you can do all sorts of amazing feats. I’ve never really talked about how natural mana recovery works in the first place. You see, mana will restore itself gradually over time. This is the base mana recovery rate, it really differs per user. If you think about it, a normal person can just go to sleep at an inn and recover all their mana but that's not the case for mages. Imagine having an obscene amount of mana then casting some sort of megadeth spell and then waking up tomorrow and doing it all over again. It just doesn’t make sense.
I’ll start talking about it a bit more. Let’s say commoners have 30 mana, obviously this isn’t the case, but that’s roughly how much they would recover in a day. Mages would recover slightly more, it might be up to 50 mana worth but I’m not quite certain since the memories and knowledge I siphoned from that commoner was that detailed. Well I think you get the gist.
[Mana Recovery 1]
Mana Restoration amount is incremented by 25%
Excellent, excellent . I thought to myself, this really helps me out especially with the regulator class that I currently already have which has an effect of greater mana regeneration and accumulation.
[Currently your base mana regen rate is 40 Points]
[With the effects of the Regulator class and Mana Recovery 1, your daily mana recovery rate has increased to 70 MP/Day]
70 MP a day. That’s basically a power up and some bullets I can sling out randomly. Since I’ve been at it for 4 hours I've recovered just over 10MP already. I’m gonna have to decide what I can do today by looking at my current mana rate.
[Your mana reserves are currently at 92/177 MP]
A fair amount still, I’ve been considering this for a while but I think today’s the day I finally do it. Do what you ask? You’ll soon find out.
“Activate S.O.I”
Just for you to remember <<Sphere of Influence>> has absolute range in my dungeon, it helps me perceive enemies and allies and communicate my thoughts and desires to them.
I can’t always walk in front of someone to convene my thoughts. I’ve been using the system to help me get in contact with them using my ability all along anyway.
“Crimson, do you think you can look after this place? I'll leave the kids to you, please take care of them while I’m not around.”
“Not around? We’ve just barely stabilized a foothold here to fight off against our enemies. What are you planning to do?”
“It might be selfish of me but I intend to leave the dungeon for a while. I want to finally see the world outside our borders.”
A moment's hesitation, there was no response on the other end. I was getting nervous, I didn’t know if she was angry or worried. Well I could know if I activated another ability to see her face.
“So soon? Don’t you think we should wait when you level up first? The monsters in the vicinity are not strong, but I can’t say you’re strong either. If you meet a group of monsters that are fairly decent then you will be in trouble.”
“I know I am a bit greedy but I think the more danger I am put in the stronger I can become. I can’t be complacent and waste time around here forever. If I don’t take chances then it will be worse for us in the long run.”
I think that was something that both of us could agree on. Things stabilized now and for some reason there weren’t that many monsters scouting or attacking us anymore even with the beacon slime trying to draw aggro to our dungeon. It was kind of bizarre.
“There’s something happening out there in the open, I have to go investigate.”
“You’re right, there's definitely something happening out there. You have to be careful.”
…
I’m standing outside the dungeon entrance, it’s a strange feeling really, I’ve only been here a couple of days and I’ve had nothing but trouble here, but it feels like I’m leaving home. Of course it’s only a temporary thing, I’m not stupid enough to think that I can survive in the wild myself yet, let alone make it to the nearest village outskirt myself.
“How would I explain where I came from or what my purpose is without a voucher? Hahaha”
I laughed to myself. Even a small village would have guards. I’m not sure how strong they’d be but I’m not gonna make my way through a guard platoon with my somewhat sketchy background.
“I’ll have to meet up with some adventurers in the future and do the whole ‘Save the party’ cliche.”
I thought about it again. This whole forest expanse is actually quite large, what are the chances of running into others if you don’t know what you’re searching for.
“I’m quite lucky in this sense. If I deter from the forest path I’ll still be able to sense allies, enemies and neutrals in a scope of 50 metres, since my INT stat is currently 25. It would be best for me to find some hostile parties of weaker monsters that I can just massacre for exp at the moment.”
That was indeed the plan for now. I didn’t want to end up like Darth Plagueis the wise, he who could help others but could not help himself.
“I can see why there aren’t many in this area at the entrance to the dungeon. This place has a concave mountain surrounding and it heavily diverges from any path I can sense right now. If there was no opening then this could probably be a good resting area or a safe zone for adventurers. Tyren and Liana probably were exploring here to gain exp and get drops here to exchange for money.”
Now that I think about it. I did loot myself some coins for those too. It’s not much though, they’re actually dirt poor based on the commoner’s memory.
“I should ramble less, it’s just midday still I want to return by late evening at worst. I’m not sure how intense things can be in the forest at night time.”
It’s a forest expanse, trees are outlined in my field of view and sensory everywhere, if it was anyone else they wouldn’t be able to traverse through this forest with good speed unless they had a tracker with them, but it’s easier for me with my detection ability added onto the fact that I didn’t have to micromanage anyone but myself at the moment.
At first it was slow, I was still surely adapting myself to the surroundings but I had gradually increased my speed, my AGI stat is 21 which may seem low but this equivalent to a somewhat fit person sprinting back on earth. If you can imagine a person sprinting an 100 metre distance then that’s the current speed I’m managing as I weave my way through the forest. I did sense some monsters around but they were packs of wolves or snakes or medium-sized lizards that I didn’t have much confidence in holding my own against yet.
[A monster party that matches your parameters has appeared within 50 metres to your right]
“Finally, I wonder what they are?”
[Goblin x 4 detected. Leader goblin is Level 3 ]
“An easy match. There are numbers though so I should still exercise some caution. I’ll get closer and then will make use of my <<Concealment>> ability”
And just like that I made my way closer to this unknowing party, I hid in the brushes and waited for one of them to split off or provide an easy critical hit. The area of maneuverability here for the goblins is quite low so that adds another advantage for me, so it seems like my chances of success are almost certain and if worst does come to worst I can always retreat safely.
The strike should be clean. It’s best if I can kill one instantly then it’ll just be a 3 on 1 but evading and attacking should be simple.
Just as I was thinking this, a level 2 goblin waltzed past.
“Now is the best time.”
[You have dealt a critical strike 23 dmg to Goblin 3. You have slain Goblin 3]
[You have gained 6 EXP. You are now 402/500 EXP to next level]
I haven’t even alerted the others yet. I feel like I’m playing Assassin's Creed.
I should move onto a different brush lest they find the carcass and try to chase me. I can’t move it because I’m in the forest and will make too much noise anyway.
I disappear once again and move on the outskirts to stalk another low level goblin. Just like last time, there's no resistance on, not even a squeak. I’m really suited for this kind of work.
[You have dealt a critical strike to Goblin 4. You have slain Goblin 4]
[You have gained 5 EXP. You are now 407/500 EXP to next level]
“Too easy, it’s unfortunate though. I’ve alerted the other two now.”
I look at the other two goblins. The stare back at me, it’s a confrontation alright but it’s far from a dangerous situation. Actually it might be a dangerous situation for them instead.
“Sorry but you guys are gonna have to be a stepping stone for me instead.”
One of the goblins raises its club and the other braces itself with no weapon, after all weapons don’t just come out of nowhere.
[You have dealt 13 dmg to Goblin 2]
I don’t even bother looking at the damage dealt voiceover anymore, I wondered if others also had a system that voiced actions and effects for them. I doubted it.
“I’ll be less reliant from now on.”
The goblins' weak swings couldn’t catch up to me. I merely just saw the actions and countered. It didn’t matter if it was a 2 on 1. I simply outclassed them.
“Another one is dead. Guess it's just the head goblin now. Too bad you’re only level 3.”
I didn’t want to expend mana on this mob. I simply wanted to familiarise myself with my body and grow stronger bit by bit. Maybe I was selling myself short before, but I don’t like being overconfident.
“Giiiiii!”
I hacked and I slashed, the movements weren’t great but they got the job done. I only had to land a couple of hits in. It only had a club to block my strikes anyway.
“Well it’s all over now.”
[You have slain Goblin 1 (Leader)]
[The enemy party is defeated. You have gained 25 EXP]
“It must’ve summarised the gains since then.”
[You are now 432/500 EXP to next level]
That’s all good and all but I’ve learnt something new today. I wasn’t able to gain any DP since I was outside the dungeon and also since I’m outside, I can’t just easily pick up drops and throw it into god knows where.
“I’ll gather cores but I won’t need anything else, especially not the club.”
[You have gained 3 I-Grade Goblin Cores]
“Well I should begin to search for the next target.”
Gaining confidence, I looked off into the distance, deciding the next area I wanted to map out in my head as I rushed off.
---
Author’s Note:
My boy has finally stopped being a NEET and crawled out of his cave to explore the world. What kinda encounters will he face. Find out next time on Calamity SR.
